March Madness  It’s tournament time and its going to be awesome baby!! Throughout this web quest you are going to realize how we use graph theory in our everyday lives, even in basketball!!

Introduction  Scheduling for basketball tournaments can be very intricate due to special circumstances and criteria that needs to be met.  In this web quest, you will explore and apply the concepts of graph theory as it relates to scheduling a NCAA basketball tournament.

Tasks  This activity focuses on applying graph theory to derive a schedule to meet the criteria of a tournament.  You will look at many different concepts of geometry and graph theory found in scheduling a NCAA basketball tournament.  By then end of this web quest, you will be able to relate a wide variety of math concepts to the NCAA tournament and explain how we use graph theory in scheduling a basketball tournament.

Procedures 1)You will be broken into seven groups of four prior to the start of this activity. Each group will be given a compact disc with access to this web quest. 2)Each individual will be given an activity sheet with all of the criteria for this activity clearly stated. Each group will be given a box of colored pencils to help them draw their graphs, and a floppy disk to save all of your groups work if needed.

Procedures 3)Use the resource page to research the statistics of the NCAA division one conferences and teams.resource 4)As a group select the top four conferences in division one basketball. 5)As a group select the five best teams within each of the four conferences you selected to compete against each other in this tournament.

Procedures 6)Work in your groups to develop your own solutions and methods to deriving a schedule so that all of the criteria of the tournament are met. 7)As a group devise a schedule that your group believes best meets all of the criteria of the tournament.

Procedures 8)When everyone is finished, each group will have their spokesperson share their methods and the processes they used to develop their schedule. 9)As a class we will discuss each of the groups methods and decide which groups schedule was the most efficient.

On Your Paper: 1)Write a paragraph of at least 100 words on how graph theory helped your group devise a schedule so that all the criteria of the tournament were met. 2)Draw graphs that helped your group devise a tournament schedule that met all of the criteria. 3)Neatly print the tournament schedule that your group produced.

Evaluation  Integration of statistics of the NCAA teams and conferences into your schedule.  Accuracy and neatness of your graphs.  Completeness and accuracy of your paragraph on how graph theory helped you devise your schedule.  Accuracy of your tournament schedule such that all the criteria of the tournament was met.

Conclusion  From searching web pages and exploring the concepts of geometry, you should have learned more about graph theory as it relates to scheduling.  You should also understand how we use graph theory in real life situations, even in basketball.  You should now see all the mathematics that surround the NCAA basketball tournament.

Resources Tasks Procedures Evaluation Conclusion  NCAA NCAA Tournament Activity Sheet  Official Official NCAA Site  College College Sports Online  List List of Division One Basketball Teams  List List of Division One Conferences  Team Team Statistics

The End Created By: Ms. Kinder